"Jesus Met the Woman" given 3/19/17

Throughout the History of the church, we preachers have had a field day with that poor woman at the well. We've really gone overboard with assumptions and preconceptions as we imagined the scene. To a great extent of course, what we've preached about the woman at the well has been a pretty fair reflection of our own attitudes about women--and about the Gospel message in general.

Moralists have painted her as dangerous. Beware of her seductive ways, her swaying walk, her alluring eyes. Spiritual types have seen her as a seeker of truth, open and honest. Anti-establiment trypes have seen her as a victim, surrounded by an atmosphere of hypocrisy. Romantics have portrayed her as a floozy with a heart of gold, Social Gospels types have seen her as a victim of small town persecution.

Whatever your opinion, it's easy to imagine her. It's easier by far to imagine her than it is to try and understand who she really might have been. It's easy to stereotype her. It's easier by far than it is to attempt to comprehend her real witness, her message for our lives.

The truth is, this un-named woman at the well is every woman. And she's every man as well. And the message of her encounter with Jesus is a message for all of us. And her witness is a witness that any one of us might make.

Did I say she was any woman? Yes, I did. As far as I know, no one--man or woman-- in the congregation this morning has been married five times and is currently shacked up with number six. And looking around at our visitors, I don't see Angelina Jolie worshipping with us today.

Because the truth is that we can’t even accuse the Samaritan woman of making bad choices. Not all of those five failed marriages were necessarily her fault. Let's remember, women in first century Palestine didn't have the right to sue for divorce. Usually their marriages had been arranged for them. But a dissatisfied husband could divorce his wife for virtually any reason by reciting a few simple words

So how many of us here, men or women, with all our freedom of choice, can claim that we haven't made, or at least been the victim of, at least six fairly serious mistakes over the entire course of our lives? Not necessarily six failed relationships? Only six bad life situations. Six mistakes--not all of them necessarily entirely her own fault.

Any one of us here could have at one time in our lives gotten involved with the wrong person, bought the wrong car, went to the wrong school, made the wrong career choice, got the wrong person mad at us. We might well have smarted off to the wrong

supervisor, taken the wrong job, made the wrong investment, picked up the wrong habit, patronized the wrong bank, bought the wrong house. For that matter, we might just have parked in the wrong spot, or found ourselves in the way of the wrong person.

Six fair to middlin' sized misadventures--actually, that doesn't seem to me to be too terribly many over the course of a person's lifetime. The woman at the well could be any one of us. Blunderer, sinner, victim, bystander-- she is all of us at the well, encountering Jesus in all our all too human sins and shortcomings and mistakes.

The dialogue between Jesus and the woman at the well is the longest recorded conversation between our Lord and anyone in Scripture. Ironically, it was a conversation that really should never have taken place. Jesus had no right to speak to her.

It went against custom and propriety at every possible level. A devout man, and certainly not a rabbi, never spoke to an unrelated woman alone. A Jew would never would have spoken to a Samaritan. A local resident would never have spoken to a homeless person. The walls separating them were not to be broached by respectable people. And certainly not in public. That was just how things were--how things were done. There was as much hostility then as between Israelis and Palestinians today.

Maybe the woman at the well wasn't so terribly surprised that some vagrant dared accost her in public. Perhaps the moralists are right and she was indeed the sort of woman who was accustomed to strange men speaking to her in secluded places. But Scripture makes it clear that she was, in point of fact, very surprised that this Jewish man should speak to her--a Samaritan and a woman.

"Woman" Jesus says, addressing her with the very same courtesy title that John depicts him as using to speak to his own mother in the story of the wedding at Cana.

"Ma'am, I'm thirsty. Give me a drink of water if you please."

That day, in the light of high noon, with those respectful words, Jesus struck down three walls that even today have a terrific power over humanity--that divide humanity more than any others. Our Lord blithely stepped over those three stumbling blocks that still continue to hinder humanity right down to this very moment, from shining together in glory.

The discrimination against women by men. The discrimination against ethnic group by ethnic group.. The discrimination of faith by faith. Sexism, Racism, Intolerance--the three strongest weapons in the arsenal of Evil. Study History—or just look around us—it becomes clear—Sexism, Racism, Intolerance-- three of Satan's favorite toys.

A Samaritan, a citizen, a sinner--caught up in a ceaseless round of drawing water. A man--a Jew, a stranger, a prophet--offering the water of life. Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Jesus and any woman. Jesus and anyone.

It’s hard to imagine that this was just a chance encounter. Most Jews journeying from Galiee to Jersualem would have taken an extra nine hours or so just to go around Samaria rather than venture into what they saw as enemy territory. But Jesus led the disciples right into this “unclean” land. He was deliberately putting himself in a place where he would have to encounter the very people that his people hated most. And who hated them right back.

Led by the Holy Spirit, Jesus came to the same well where his ancestor Jacob had first seen and fallen in love with Rachel. Maybe Jesus was intentionally there that day, to make a witness to his followers. Maybe he was there seeking to encounter someone—to touch someone—anyone--to bridge a barrier or two between his people and those other descendants of Jacob and Rachel whom they called heretics and blasphemers..

It was high noon in the desert and Jesus was tired and thirsty. Left alone there, vulnerable, surrounded by those who would call him enemy, Jesus could have died without water. Sitting next to a well with no bucket to draw water with, he encountered an enemy of his people who holds the cup that can quench his thirst.

The Samaritan woman is vulnerable and alone as well-- shunned—no husband or son, no father or brothers to protect her. An outcast— she must have come to the well at the heat of midday rather than in the cool of the early morning or evening because the other women of the town shunned her. None of the other women of the village are there to comfort her, share her story, to gossip, or cry, or laugh with her.

Jesus needs water to live. The woman needs the fresh, living water of God’s grace and truth that Jesus can provide to quench her thirst for healing and wholeness and forgiveness. In their mutual thirst, they affirm their common humanity. In their mutual vulnerability, they affirm their human need for each other. In their shared conversation they each discover one another—and historic antagonists become something else—not quite friends perhaps, but no longer enemies.

Enmity melts into mutuality. All the distances between them—race, gender, religion, social status are melted in the hot noonday sun and a new relationship is born—children of the same God.

Jesus and the woman model a new kind of relationship—a relationship built on honesty and compassion. It is a relationship that breaks down the sinful barriers between people and unites them in shared faith and mutual healing.

The Gospel never says that Jesus ever did get that cup of water. All of a sudden his disciples came back, involved in their petty, mundane concerns. Shocked and upset, they interrupted the conversation, the dialogue, the communion their Master had gotten started with the woman at the well. Just as today, we with our pettiness and prejudices and preconceptions, still interrupt, still sometimes get in the way of Christ's efforts to touch lives, to quench His thirst for justice and equity and right.

In the aftermath of their encounter, notice that it was the woman, the lay person rather than the formal, consecrated, ordained disciples who went back into town, eagerly witnessing, sharing the good news.

"Come and see a man I met who told me everything I ever did. He knew me. He, a Jew, approached and accepted and taught me. Can this possibly be the Messiah?" As a witness goes, it isn't exactly the Apostles Creed. It certainly wasn't a testimony of

unswerving faith. "Can this be the Christ?"

Even so, her witness was enough. It's really the sort of testimony any one of us might give. It is invitational—

"Come and see"--rather than judgmental. It is within the range permitted by her experience of Jesus. "He told me everything I ever did." It is honest in its tentativeness and openness. "This can't be the Messiah, can it?" Above all, it is a witness that anyone can hear--regardless of sex, race, or creed. And it suffices.

It's a refreshing witness. There's no arrogant attitude of “I’m-saved-and-you-ain’t-ha-ha-ha”. She isn't selling somebody else's conclusions. She gives no pre-packaged answers to unasked questions. She avoids thinly veiled ultimatums, and threats of hell, and any assumptions of absolute certainty on matters of theology. She trusts the Spirit to do the converting—not herself.

By her simple, straightforward, honesty the woman at the well, manages to convey a willingness to simply let her hearers meet Jesus, allow themselves to be touched by His unconditional love and acceptance, and arrive at their own conclusions. And they do.

"It's no longer because of what you told us that we believe--now we've heard him for ourselves, and we know that he is really the Savior of the world."

John, the Gospel author has immortalized this nameless woman in his narrative. She could be any woman. She could be you, or me. Sex, race, and creed have been transcended in her story. That's the power of her witness-- a witness that you or I are

just as capable of giving in our work-place, our community, our classroom, our marketplaces, our homes.

Once we open ourselves to the Spirit, we’ll encounter opportunities for sharing in our lives— meeting a new neighbor, talking to our adult children, sharing a cup of coffee with a PADS or Pantry client, putting out a stack of our church’s business cards where customers and colleagues can see them, talking to other parents at the playground or day care center, inviting someone going through a rough time to come to church with you.

No pressure, no hard door-to-door hard sell, no threats of hell. If, like the Samaritan woman, when you and I are willing to witness honestly with our lives and simply, respectfully, invite others to meet and be touched by Jesus, we’ll find that the opportunities will present themselves. Quite likely we will approach such an outreach with unease. But once we try it, we will find ourselves filled with joy that we did so,

Today, the Samaritan woman is honored in many cultures. In Southern Mexico,

La Samaritana is honored on the Fourth Friday in Lent, when water flavored with fruit and spices is given to commemorate her gift of water to Jesus. In the Orthodox church she is known as St. Photini, or Sveltlana in Russian—a name that means “Equal to the Apostles” and she is honored as an apostle and martyr on the Feast of the Samaritan Woman. Shucks, Peter, Paul and Mary even wrote a song about her!

Jesus honored her by speaking to her with the same courteous respect He accorded to his own mother. John, the author of the Gospel honors her by giving her witness at the well a name --the same term with which he began his Gospel. In the original Greek text, John writes that the woman at the well spoke "the Word".

            This Gospel story witnesses for us a gift of God for all of God’s children. In shared vulnerability and interdependence, in the need for honest relationship, in the breaking down of barriers Jesus shows us a new way to learn about one another, a new way to learn the truth about one another and learn that we need one another. Jesus shows us that ministry can take place wherever there is shared reaching out to meet human need. True worship need not take place in a beloved worship space, or on a sacred mountaintop, or even at an ancestral shrine. True worship takes place in relationship with the person of the Christ, who is the mountaintop of reconciliation and peace and the wellspring of the water of new life.